With an atmosphere settled somewhere between the urban melancholy and weirdness of The Notwist, the instancy of Karate’s “The Bed is in the Ocean” and Mogwai’s compository density, the Dutch quintet “We vs. Death” created with their album “A Black House, A Coloured Home” a haimish but idiosyncratic peace of sound.

Tristness and sadness combined with a clever integrated wind section the opener “The Things You Did” clearly outlines the basic principles of the whole album. Maybe this is the only problem of the record, because, its monochrome vibe could be interpreted as monotony, which would be an undeserved rating for this record. It takes till the middle of the record, to create a new accent with the reductive outro of “Mirage”. In general, reductions of this kind evoke the best and most intense moments of “A Black House, a Coloured Home”. Especially at these parts, the naked, begging vocals, which remember me of the Post Country-Songwriter Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, touch the listener at his heart.

If this record would be a house, I would like like to come again and again, but I would only visit one room per visit, only to be sure to capture and appreciate the whole range of its beauty.